Stones Still Irreverent After 50 Years

On Monday the Rolling Stones officially announced that they would be playing a handful of concerts to celebrate their 50th anniversary as a band. 50 And Counting…The Rolling Stones Live tour thus far consists two shows at London’s O2 Arena on November 25th and 29th and two shows at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ on December 13th and 15th however, there have been hints that the band could continue on in the new year. In a BBC interview Keith Richards said “I wouldn’t be surprised” when asked if the band would playing any more shows.

“Nobody’s actually given a heads up on that, but I don’t think that this band is gonna wind up all of this for four shows. I think they want to do something for the end of the year, and I think next year probably looks like it’s on,” Richards added. All along he has maintained that the band’s actual 50th anniversary should be celebrated next year because Charlie Watts didn’t join the group until 1963. “This year to us is a conception,” the guitarist joked, “next year is the birth, but everybody around the world has decided a conception’s worth a celebration.”

Meanwhile, in an interview with The Evening Standard, Mick Jagger noted that the Stones would have considered 50 years as a band a “nightmare” when they first formed in 1962.

“Obviously at the beginning you didn’t have any inclination, it’s a nightmare idea really that you’d do anything for 50 years at that age. I think the Rolling Stones are kind of irreverent about it in a way. I don’t think we take it very seriously and we joke about it really.” He then went on to say, “It doesn’t exactly feel like your golden wedding. I think it kind of feels like a bit of a fuck off moment to be honest, and I don’t think we’ve laughed at it enough. I think one of the reasons is that we don’t really believe that amount of time has gone by so quickly, and here we are, still here.”

In the same interview, the iconic frontman noted that the band was rehearsing approximately 60 songs to prepare for the live shows and that they had “been in touch” with former Stones bassist Bill Wyman about the possibility of having him join them onstage.

Shorty before the big announcement on Monday, an image of a hand-written setlist was posted on Twitter. Jammed with classic hits, the list surprising does not include the new tracks “Doom and Gloom” and “One More Shot” from their forthcoming greatest hits collection GRRR!